For years, dentistry has been evolving and has seen huge technological advances. Included among these advances are extreme makeovers with the use of bridgework or veneers as well as implants to replace the missing teeth. These reconstructions have a number of drawbacks:
Typical reconstruction procedures include a need to drill down healthy tooth structures. This is done to allow the seating of the artificial material either on or around the teeth. Some patients have a severe problem allowing a dentist to drill down natural tooth structure to accommodate something cosmetic. Healthy tooth structure is the most congenial and disease preventing material we can place near or over gingival gum tissue. Typical cosmetic reconstructions require removal of tooth structure to accommodate the reconstructive veneer. Typical veneers need anywhere from ½ to 1 mm in thickness of porcelain to be bonded onto the tooth.
Once a tooth, whether it be for a crown or an implant or even a veneer is subjected to reconstruction or a restorative procedure, the material or enamel that was taken away by a high powerful electric, air driven, hand piece can never grow back. This means that these dental fixtures or restorations must be redone over time.
The procedures used for cosmetic purposes must make room for the cosmetic materials. Therefore, there is a need for drilling of tooth structure and this tooth structure can never come back.
These prosthesis are placed on a fluid, oral cavity and conditions change over time. Over time, the gingival tissue changes and there is erosion of other teeth. As a result, there will be a need for changing these prosthetics over time. When teeth are drilled, there is only a matter of time or distance from the pulp cavity that would require the need for root canal treatment.
Initial placement of these cosmetic appliances will require extensive amount of time and effort to keep them clean and healthy. Whether it be veneers or bridgework, extra time at home is needed to take care of one's appliance.
If a patient is seeking to improve their smile, whether it be for an occasion or for a look they are trying to attain, unless that patient has perfect teeth and wants them whitened, the patient must go through an extensive makeover.
When someone desires a smile makeover, they are at the hands of the clinician. There is no trial run to see the esthetic result. A patient may want to have a say in the aesthetics, e.g., size, shape and contours, but once a conventional dental device is bonded, there is no going back.